During normal sexual relations, the act of sexual intercourse involves the insertion of an erect male penis into the vagina of a female. In men with a sexual dysfunction, there is difficulty with at least one stage of the sexual act. Two of the most common sexual problems men experience are erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation. Erectile dysfunction is characterized by the inability of the male to achieve or maintain an erection which may preclude the performance of the sexual act that is pleasing to the partners. This problem is independent of ejaculation. Typical treatments for erectile dysfunction include pharmacologic agents such as sildenafil, vardenafil, tadilafil, or mechanical means such as surgical implants, vacuum tumescence, constrictor bands, and splints. Although these treatments have resulted in varying degrees of success, they also offer drawbacks for one or both sexual partners. For example, the pharmacologic agents may have adverse side effects or drug-drug interactions that are harmful to the user. The mechanical means are oftentimes complicated for the user to attach and they may be uncomfortable for the male partner, female partner, or both partners due to shapes that can poke, pinch, or entangle hair. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,446,206 to De Lano includes a penetrator rod that must be inserted into the urethra of the penis. Another drawback with the mechanical means has been that they limit the amount of direct contact between the penis and the vagina, thereby degrading the sensual and intimate aspects of the sexual act. In addition, they may include features that are hard to clean and which can increase the chance of infectious disease transmission. Another drawback with mechanical means is their difficulty in withstanding the insertion forces associated with penetrating the vagina. For satisfactory insertion of the glans penis into the vagina, it has the difficult task of overcoming the resistance presented by the vaginal introitus.
Although these pharmacological and mechanical means have had limited success at addressing erectile dysfunction, they have been less successful at addressing premature ejaculation. The definition of premature ejaculation of the American Urologic Association is “[e]jaculation that occurs sooner than desired, either before or shortly after penetration, causing distress to either one or both partners.” Typically, approaches for dealing with premature ejaculation have been limited to using topical or ingested medications, using behavioral therapies, decreasing the sensation on the penis, or combinations thereof.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have an apparatus and method for ameliorating erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, or both. It would be of further advantage for the apparatus and method to be easy and inexpensive to implement.